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Biden Stumps in a Race Steeped in Ideology

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. threw the heft of the White House behind the Democratic candidate on Monday in a race for a vacant Congressional seat that both Democrats and Republicans view as significant tests of their political fortunes.

In the final hours before the polls open on Tuesday, Democrats made a plea for the votes of moderate Republicans who have become disillusioned with their party’s backing of a deeply conservative candidate in the 23rd Congressional District. The race erupted after a more moderate Republican candidate, under pressure from conservatives, abruptly ended her campaign over the weekend.

But backers of the Conservative Party candidate appealed to their ideological base, arguing that the party had to hold firm to its core values.

Each side summoned all the political firepower it could.

“They may not have any room for moderate views in the Republican Party upstate anymore, but let me assure you, we have room,” Mr. Biden told a crowd of about 200 people who gathered at a community center for a rally for Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate. “I say to all those moderate Republicans, those decent-thinking folks who are pragmatic Republicans, ‘Join us. We welcome you.’ ”

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Douglas L. Hoffman, right, in Watertown, is running on the Conservative Party line and has been endorsed by Sarah Palin and other high-profile Republicans.Credit
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

Mr. Biden’s appearance, at a community center here, coincided with a visit by one of the Republican Party’s better-known figures, Fred D. Thompson, an actor and former senator from Tennessee, who campaigned for the Republican-backed candidate, Douglas L. Hoffman. At a boisterous rally at the local fairgrounds that drew a significantly larger crowd than Mr. Biden’s appearance did earlier in the day, Mr. Thompson praised Mr. Hoffman as the kind of candidate who understands people who think, “I don’t like the direction my country is going in; they’re trying to change my country.”

“Constructive change is good,” said Mr. Thompson, who has been a leading voice in a growing conservative movement that is disillusioned with President Obama and Democratic economic policies, “but not on a dime.”

The race, in the northernmost regions of New York, has deepened divisions in the Republican Party. Many Republicans have come to view the contest as a referendum on the kinds of candidates the party should pick as it looks to rebuild in next year’s midterm elections.

The party’s conservative wing, urged on by boldface names like former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, drove out Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, the moderate candidate whom local party leaders had selected as the Republican nominee. Ms. Scozzafava withdrew on Saturday, making Mr. Hoffman the effective Republican choice, though he is running on the Conservative line.

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Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. with the Democratic candidate Bill Owens. Mr. Biden made a pitch to moderate Republicans: “Join us. We welcome you.”Credit
Mary Buttolph for The New York Times

But Democrats also have an interest in the race because a victory in the Republican-leaning district would provide a boost at a time when they are fighting a battle to change the health care system and are concerned about losing seats in Congress next year.

Democrats hope that they can pull off a victory by attracting voters who would have voted for Ms. Scozzafava, a supporter of gay rights and abortion rights, who defied her party on Sunday and endorsed Mr. Owens.

But Mr. Owens’s supporters acknowledge that victory will not come easily; the area has been represented by Republicans for more than a century.

Vocal conservatives are proving to be highly energized over Mr. Hoffman’s candidacy. And if enough of them turn out to the polls, they could deliver the seat to him.

“This is sweeping through the country,” said Mary Adasek, 60, a real estate agent from Canastota. “People want change, and Doug Hoffman is a breath of fresh air.”

A version of this article appears in print on November 3, 2009, on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Biden Stumps In a Race Transformed By the Right. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe